Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise

Summer hiatus

Go here for an audio companion to my book The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century.

Birth of the concert

Why So Serious? The New Yorker, Sept. 8, 2008.

Shakespeare at Glimmerglass

Mark the Music. The New Yorker, August 25, 2008.

Chen Qigang

In my piece on music in China, I wrote about the composer Chen Qigang, who directed the music program for the opening ceremony of the Olympics. It was revealed at last night's event that Chen himself composed the official theme song of the Games, a duet called "You and Me." Liu Huan and Sarah Brightman sang it while standing atop a floating sphere. Xinhua, China's official news agency, declared that the song brought "surprise and jubilation to the world." Chen didn't give away any secrets when I spoke to him, but he did say, “Now I understand how hard it is to compose a cheery little song.”

Zimmermann's Die Soldaten

Infernal Opera. The New Yorker, July 21, 2008.

O Albion

I am in England because The Rest Is Noise has been nominated for the BBC Four Samuel Johnson Prize, to be announced on Tuesday. My chances of winning seem low, but I am thrilled to be here. Tonight I will appear at Topping Books in Bath. Update: Warmest congratulations to Kate Summerscale, whose book The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, a reconstruction of a notorious 1860 murder case, won the prize.

Pre-hiatus playlist

— Purcell, Fantasias for the Viols, 1680; Jordi Savall and Hespèrion XX (Alia Vox reissue)
— Feldman, The Viola in My Life I-IV; Marek Konstantynowicz, Christian Eggen, Cikada Ensemble, Norwegian Radio Ensemble (ECM)
— La Pellegrina: Intermedii 1589; Skip Sempé conducting the Collegium Vocale Gent and the Capriccio Stravagante Renaissance Orchestra (Paradizo)
— Crystal Tears (music of Dowland, Robert Johnson, and others); Andreas Scholl and Concerto di viole (Harmonia Mundi)
— Hercules and Love Affair, Hercules and Love Affair (DFA)
— Portishead, Third (Mercury)
— Audivi vocem (music of Tallis, Tye, and Sheppard); Hilliard Ensemble (ECM)
— Quartets of Ravel, Adès, and Mozart; Calder Quartet (available at CD Baby)

Critical

Two more classical critics have fallen by the wayside: Paul Horsley at the Kansas City Star and Lawrence Johnson at the Miami Herald.  Johnson will continue to cover music at a blog called South Florida Classical Review. Neither paper is hiring a replacement. The Washington Post, on the other hand, has resisted the trend toward downgrading arts coverage and smartly hired Anne Midgette as a full-time replacement for Tim Page, who is now a visiting professor at USC. Still, the outlook is bleak for classical criticism in newspapers, or, indeed, for any kind of criticism in newspapers, or, indeed, for newspapers themselves. At MusicalAmerica.com, Justin Davidson declares that papers are essentially committing suicide, chasing after audiences that don't want them while spurning their loyal readers. He offers a radical proposal in response. Keep in mind, as Tim Mangan reminded us a while back, that editors are now using Internet hits to gauge the relative popularity of their writers, so support your local critic by clicking on his or her stories, writing comments, checking those little ratings boxes, e-mailing the stories around, and so on. Protest may be nearly as helpful as praise; it's the hits that count in this WalMartWelt.... Bob Shingleton has a nice post on the music of Joaquín Rodrigo, who made possible Sketches of Spain.... Andrew Patner hears the Concord in Risør.... Fact of the day, courtesy of an old Allan Kozinn piece: when Christopher Keene mounted Die Soldaten at New York City Opera in 1991, he spent $65,000.

Photo: Clifton Webb is sized up by Dana Andrews in Laura.

Deliver us from evil

On July 3 I saw the dress rehearsal for the Lincoln Center Festival presentation of Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Die Soldaten. As early signs indicated, it's an astonishing experience; details will follow in a New Yorker review. Unfortunately, the only tickets still available for the run — 7/5 to 7/12 — are in the $150-250 range; cheaper seats are all gone. There's a video preview at the New York Times website.

Declare independence